<p>Maybe, but no one who lives here goes that way. They just don’t. And 81N is no picnic in the winter, either. </p>
<p>OP’s coming from Boston. Add 3 hours.
Friend’s sibs all went to St Lawrence and have plenty of stories about the snow. </p>
<p>Bookworm, some of us don’t understand your 1 hour reference. RPI is certainly more than an hour from Boston, and RPI is not an hour from Albany airport. </p>
<p>She must have misunderstood - perhaps thinking of WPI. </p>
<p>It’s no more than 15-20 minutes from RPI to the Albany airport. It’s about 3 hours to Boston from here. </p>
<p>I think the OP is from the Boston area so her kid wouldn’t be flying anyway. </p>
<p>Yes, guilty as charged. My reference was to Clark and WPI, not RPI.</p>
<p>I also forgot about University of Vermont. Hits on all requests but might be a tiny bit farther away in distance. Great college town…Church St., Ben and Jerry’s, Stowe, Bolton Valley, Lake Champlain…
My sister lives in Vermont and we always have a good time in Burlington when we go.</p>
<p>So many people have mentioned Universitty of Vermont (and they have fencing!) We definitely have to check it out. It is just over 3 hrs. to get there for us. One of my friends visited with her son a couple of years ago and was shocked by hookah smoking out in plain sight. I tend to get less shocked (have lived in Santa Cruz), but is it really that hippie?</p>
<p>I don’t know about the earth science part, but the University of Southern Maine might fit the bill. The residential campus in Gorham and the other half of the school in Portland certainly fit his criteria. Safe small campuses and plenty of snow. </p>
<p>Burlington is a bit more alternative. My brother, my youngest son and I went to visit my sister a few years ago and the Church St Marketplace had a lot of granola types. Uncle and nephew were having fun with their observations of the crowd with each other.
If you end up visiting you can do a tour of the Ben and Jerry’s plant for something to do. Lots of good restaurants too…I know we ate lunch at a Chinese place called the smooth pebble which was very good. They gave you a smooth pebble with your check so I think that’s why I remember the name.
Middlebury college is worth a stop on your way up. Cute town and nice campus even though I think UVM is probably going to be more your son’s style.</p>
<p>LBowie- I, too have lived in Santa Cruz… although I never thought of similarities between Burlington, VT, one could see them… </p>
<p>there’s a pedestrian mall that might bring back memories of Pacific Garden Mall … there’s the water west, instead of east, of town… college students…</p>
<p>From a parent’s POV, nice town to visit. riverbirch described it well. maybe Santa Cruz in New England with definitely more & better restaurants </p>
<p>(and, I second visiting Middlebury, cute town)</p>
<p>“One of my friends visited with her son a couple of years ago and was shocked by hookah smoking out in plain sight”</p>
<p>Hookah is very popular on college campuses now. My son has one. Not saying I love the idea of him smoking but like all fads this one will probably fade soon, too. </p>
<p>Tell your son that smoking endangers his manhood (Y chromosome):
<a href=“Science | AAAS”>Science | AAAS;
<p>He is an adult. </p>
<p>You described Brandeis.</p>
<p>Burlington is a liberal leaning, independent little city and the colleges certainly reflect that. My son dealt with more potheads his freshman year than drunk kids. He loves the city so much that he hasn’t been home except for visits since the summer after his freshman year. The colleges offer hugely discounted ski passes and free public transportation passes. I had not heard about hookah, but no surprise.</p>
<p>Hookah with tobacco. I basically had to completely shut up and they out grew it, fast. By the time OP’s son is in school, it could be a trend of the past.</p>
<p>“You described Brandeis” </p>
<p>Not sure if this is in reference to hookah smoking or a good fit of criteria. It was actually one of the first ones I looked into, but I don’t think they have Earth Science or Geology. Tufts, BU, BC have it; Northeastern, Brandeis, WPI do not. (I did not check Harvard or MIT.)</p>
<p>Thanks for all the info re: Vermont!</p>
<p>LBowie–don’t know if your son is considering BU or BC for Geology. My D’s bff from high school is currently working on a doctorate in Geology at BU (geology is part of a larger earth science/environmental science department). She’s a bright kid–did her undergraduate degree at Swarthmore. I saw her at Thanksgiving and she was telling me that her advisor was leaving BU and going to BC–seems to be some sort of upheaval in the program at BU. She was a little bit discouraged. Don’t know how this affects undergraduates but thought it might be useful information. </p>
<p>Oh, that is interesting and too bad. Thanks for the information. It stinks when your PhD advisor moves. I feel bad for your daughter’s friend. That happened to my husband, though his moved from one coast to the other and my husband transferred to a closer school instead of following (he was still a first year student so not deep into his thesis work yet.) </p>
<p>BU is on the list (big campus, yes, but not much need for a science student to have to go to West Campus.) BC is not on the list because it’s too football and Catholic.</p>